TPAC has already received endorsements from prominent pro-trail leaders such as Craig Manson - former Assistant Secretary for USFWS at the Department of Interior, Dennis Hollingsworth – former California State Senator and founder of the California Legislature Outdoor Sporting Caucus, Chris Carter – International Six Days Enduro Gold Medalist and off-road hero, Del Albright – a national off-road and 4WD spokesman, and John Stewart - Editor of 4x4Wire.

TPAC has also been featured in CycleNews, Dirt Rider Magazine, and numerous internet sites.

TPAC is asking you to make a donation of any size $10, $25, $50, $100, $500 up to $5,000 to help us reach our $20,000 dollar goal this week and blow up our first moneybomb. Also, we are making a special request that you to forward this on to your off-road and trail networks and ask them to join you in support of our efforts to put pro-access candidates into elected federal office.

John Stewart, Editor of 4x4Wire stated, “The TrailPac is a unique opportunity to boost public participation in the election process.” The TrailPAC is seeking to find candidates that understand and support the basic need of motorized recreation - access to trails.

Don Amador, founder of The Trail PAC, states, "The Trail PAC is honored to get the endorsement of 4x4Wire. As a leader in trail-access communications, 4x4Wire is strongly positioned to help TPAC get off-road recreationists involved in the political process and the 2012 election."

4x4Wire is proud to endorse The TrailPac and its efforts to educate the motorized recreation community about issues affecting recreation and the position of election candidates on those issues.

4x4Wire joins a growing list of prominent pro-trail leaders such as Craig Manson - former Assistant Secretary for USFWS at the Department of Interior, Dennis Hollingsworth – former California State Senator and founder of the California Legislature Outdoor Sporting Caucus, Chris Carter – International Six Days Enduro Gold Medalist and off-road hero, and Del Albright – a national off-road and 4WD spokesman that endorse The TrailPac.

H.R. 2834 passed the Committee with strong bipartisan support by a vote of 29-14. This vital piece of legislation would require fishing, hunting and recreational shooting to be included in all federal land planning documents and would fix numerous inconsistencies in federal law that are being exploited by litigious environmental groups to reduce hunting opportunities on federal land. This bill is strongly supported by the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance, Safari Club International, the National Rifle Association, and millions of sportsmen across the country.

“This legislation is vital given the Administration’s recent actions toward hunters and recreational sport shooters,” said Melissa Simpson, Director of Government Affairs for Safari Club International. “Sportsmen have repeatedly sought to collaborate with the federal agencies and have been greeted with proposed closures in areas such as the Sonoran Desert National Monument, where the BLM intends to close the entire one-half million acre national monument to shooters. There are some 63 shooting sites within the monument, closure of which will end access for sportsmen. Passage of H.R. 2834 is necessary to protect against these anti-hunting policies.”

“Sportsmen are increasingly facing attacks aimed at stopping them from using public land,” said Bud Pidgeon, President and CEO of the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance. “This bill closes the loopholes that anti-hunters have used time and time again to try to deny access for hunting, fishing and shooting. Now is the time to put a stop to it. We are extremely pleased and appreciative that the House Natural Resources Committee recognized the importance of this bill.”

"We are pleased Representative Bishop called on BRC to provide testimony on these important issues. BRC has been urging the Forest Service to steer its planning regulations back to the primary goals of efficiency and expediency in the Forest planning process," Mumm said. Mumm was also encouraged that Rep. Bishop included the recreation permit issue, noting that BRC has recently appealed to legislators to pass a bill that will modify and streamline the Special-use Permit process. "But perhaps most importantly," Mumm added, "Congressional oversight is needed regarding the agency's closure of tens of thousands of roads and trails over the last decade."

BRC has been concerned for some time that recreational access to lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) are threatened by planning regulations that are, in the agency's own words, costly, complex, and procedurally burdensome. Sadly, the USFS has proposed new planning regulations that only make the situation worse. The new "Proposed Planning Rule" threatens to create a situation that will exacerbate, not resolve, the planning gridlock accelerating through the agency. (More information on the web)

Recreationists across the country, both motorized and non-motorized, have also been burdened by overly complex and expensive permit requirements. The recreation permit process as currently implemented on Bureau of Land Management and USFS managed lands is overly bureaucratic, expensive for both agencies and the public, and often applied in an unfair and arbitrary manner. Efforts to encourage the agencies to modify and streamline the process have failed, even when those efforts were supported by agency policy. The current Special-Use Permit process no longer serves the public interest or supports the goals and objectives of land use planning. (More info on the web)

BRC applauds Representative Bishop for including the Travel Management planning in this hearing. OHV users initially supported the process, however, in some areas it has been used to make landscape level changes to the Forest Plan and close a huge percentage of existing legal trails and even authorized routes. This is contrary to the regulation and has engendered opposition from motorized and non-motorized recreationists, sportsmen, campers and local communities. Recently, the same subcommittee held a field hearing in Northern California that was focused on trail access to federal timber lands. (More info on the web)

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The BlueRibbon Coalition is a national recreation group that champions responsible recreation, and encourages individual environmental stewardship. With members in all 50 states, BRC is focused on building enthusiast involvement with organizational efforts through membership, outreach, education, and collaboration among recreationists. 1-800-BlueRib - www.sharetrails.org

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